Bad bank takes over country's leading publisher
BAMC, which had so far held the 51.23% stake in Mladinska knjiga as a lienholder, said that no other bidder had turned up for the auction today.
The publisher was transferred to BAMC following several failed attempts by creditor banks to sell it.
Mladinska knjiga was part of the bankruptcy estate of Zvon Dva, a holding in indirect ownership of the Maribor Archdiocese which went into receivership in 2012. Zvon Dva became the publisher's majority owner in 2006.
BAMC said it would offset the purchase money for the publisher with its claims Zvon Dva. The transaction will enable the bad bank to take the role of an active majority owner of Mladinska knjiga.
Hence it will also participate in the appointment of new supervisory board members at the upcoming shareholders meeting as the terms of four representatives of capital expire in June.
BAMC said the move was in line with its mission. If it fails to sell an asset at a suitable price, it buys it so as to restructure it in order to increase its value so it can sell it later on.
The publisher's management said the bad bank's move was expected, but it sees the BAMC ownership as "a transitional phase in the search for a truly long-term owner."
The bad bank hopefully realizes that after the deleveraging and consolidation, Mladinska knjiga is not only a well-performing company but also the only major publisher and bookshop owner in existence in Slovenia and as such "an institution of broader national importance."
"If that is the case...this is good news for the future of Slovenian publishing and book-selling," the management said.
A similar message was delivered by the Slovenian Writers' Association, which has been a staunch advocate of keeping the publisher in Slovenian hands and had at one point even attempted - unsuccessfully - to put together a consortium to buy it.
The association's president Ivo Svetina said the takeover by the bad bank paved the way for a transfer of the publisher to the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH), effectively keeping it in state ownership.
But it might still be sold to a foreign buyer. "I don't want to dramatize, but this would be the end of Slovenian publishing - and that is the opinion shared by many publishers," he said.
Mladinska knjiga založba (MKZ), the core company of the group that also comprises a retail arm and subsidiaries in the former Yugoslavia, was transferred to BAMC after its sale to low-cost publisher Učila International by banks Abanka and NLB fell through in 2014.
The company generated EUR 200,000 in operating profit on almost EUR 77m in sales revenues in 2014, but posted a loss of nearly EUR 900,000 due to financial obligations and impairments.
The group used to employ more than 1,500 staff, but by late 2015 the headcount dropped to just over 900.